One of the things that struck me when I started a family was my sudden ability to connect with strangers. I'm a super awkward person, so being able to laugh about how shit things were, with people I did and didn't know, felt pretty liberating. "I'm so tired I cry when I can't buy my regular sandwich", I'd confide. They'd respond, "I haven't slept next to my husband for 3 years". Such is life in the parenting club.

I don't think I would have understood or been able to work amidst the chaos that is family life, before I had one of my own. Kids are weird - to have and to be around. They're not rational; they're not predictable (except when they are); and they're also pretty wonderful.

I haven't seen Jen for a decade, but as soon as I stepped into her Brisbane house where Jasper was teething and Clara was being well... a toddler, I was like, "ohhh I know this" and felt immediately at home. I guess that's why I'm drawn to photography that feels like real life, not something out of Hello magazine. Because life is messy and mucky, and I want to remember it like that.